Fighting cancer by starving it

Economist : Because cancer cells need nutrients to grow, Valter Longo of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and colleagues have been trying to see whether they can fight cancer by starving it. Working with mice injected with breast-cancer cells, the researchers developed a special diet that is low in calories, proteins, and sugars. To avoid starving the animals completely and to encourage the action of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, the researchers added vitamin D, zinc, and fatty acids. They found that tumor growth was greatly reduced in the group of mice that were periodically forced to fast on the special diet, compared with those that were consistently fed standard rodent chow. In addition, tumor development was reduced even further among the fasting mice when a dose of the anticancer drug doxorubicin was added.